Show Me What I'm Looking For
by lolacola27
Summary: Jasper Hale never imagined that Social Services would show up at his door, saying that his ex-girlfriend was murdered and requested in her will that her daughter be placed in the care of him. Now, this 22-year-old has to decided within two weeks to either place the girl in an adoption center or become a single parent. Either way, his life will never be the same. All-human.


**Enjoy :)**

**Jasper's POV**

January 23rd. The day my life changed. At first, I had no idea how I was going to do it but that's life.

* * *

My name is Jasper Hale. I'm 22, I live on the outskirts of Portland in a town called Milwaukie. I live downtown in an apartment. My apartment in on the fifth floor and it has two bedrooms, a living room connected to the kitchen, and two bathrooms. I live alone so it's a big apartment to me. I work in 50 floor corporate building for Tech Savvy **(A/N: Just like Best Buy but it's not real. Haha) **and I pretty much attend meetings for ways we can expand our business and since I graduated with a degree in Marketing and Business, I'm part of the

I grew up in small town outside of Austin, Texas until I was 14 when we moved up to Forks. Since then, I went to the University of Minnesota and got my degree in Business and Marketing. My mom and dad still live back in Forks and my twin sister Rosalie lives Seattle with boyfriend, Emmett.

I turned on the T.V. to my favorite show, Duck Dynasty. This show cracks me up! My family was never that redneck, we just fished a lot and went muddin'. I still have my Texan accent so hallelujah that's not lost.

Suddenly, my thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. I didn't think any of my family was coming to visit me...

As I opened the door, a woman with her blonde hair tied back in to a neat bun, wearing a blue blouse and knee length tight black skirt with heels was standing there.

"Hi, are you Jasper Hale?" She asked. "Yes, ma'am. Please to meet you. Would you like to come in?" I offered, like the good southern gentleman I am.

"Thank you for the offer but this will only take a couple minutes. My name is Sherrie Alming and I work for the state of Oregon's Child Services. Do you know by a woman of the name Courtney Wilson?" The name hit me like a frisbee to the face.

Courtney Wilson and I dated from sophomore year to senior year when I learned she cheated on me with some real douche bag. I think she got pregnant too with him.

"Yes, I know who she is." I responded. "Well, sadly but she was found murdered a week ago. In her will, it said that if she were to die, she wants you to have custody of her daughter. The family members that we could find of Courtney's said that they are willing to let you keep her. We couldn't locate the father of the girl or any of his family." Sherrie explained.

I just stood there in shock. I'm told my ex-girlfriend is dead and she wants me to keep her daughter. Sensing that I didn't know what to say, Sherrie offered an idea.

"Can you have a two week trial with her and decide if you want to adopt her or not?"

I can try two weeks. I have never really taken care of a kid so I guess I can see if I can do this. I really don't want this little girl just going into an adoption center.

"Sure." I managed to say. Sherrie turned so her back was facing me and she crouched down and that's when I noticed that the little girl was hiding behind her the whole time.

"Calista **(A/N: Kuh-lista)**, you're going to be staying with Jasper. If you need something, my numbers in your bag." Sherrie told Calista. Sherrie stood back up and stepped aside so Calista could go into my apartment.

Sherrie waved goodbye to Calista and then she left. Calista is a very cute girl, with long and wavy auburn hair with bright green eyes.

I sat down on the couch and she followed. "So how old are you?" I asked her. She just stared at me with her green eyes.

After a few minutes of silence, she held up four fingers.

"I'm Jasper Hale, but you can call me Jazz or Jasper. Would you like to see your room?" I offered. She stood up from the couch, indicating that she wants too. I led her to the hallway on the left side of my apartment where it was a walkway, then two rooms which are the bathroom and the other one is the guest bedroom.

Calista went straight to her bed, set her backpack and small suitcase down on the ground, climbed onto the bed, and fell asleep. I quietly closed the door and went to my room and called my sister.

"Rose! You remember Courtney? Well she was murdered and left in her will that she wants me to take care of her daughter!" I said, panicking.

"What?!" Rose yelled. "I know! Her social worker said that I could do a trial week with her and decide if I want to adopt her." I explained.

"Jazz, can you handle this?" Rose asked. "I have no idea." I honestly responded. "Well, you can do this. I will come down next weekend to help, okay?" Rose offered.

"Thanks Rose!" I said. I'm relieved she's going to come down and help next week, but I still have no idea what to do with her when I go to work 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. tomorrow and Thursday and the 12-7 day shift Friday and Saturday. Well, Rose will be here Friday and Saturday so she can help.

"How old is she?" Rose asked. "Four." I responded. "I would suggest enrolling her in daycare after this week. I will take her shopping this weekend for clothes and bedroom stuff." Rose said. Thank Jesus Christ for my sister right now.

"Thank you so much, Rose!" I told her. "Anytime, Jazz. I will see you next weekend. Bye, love you!" Rose said. "Bye, Rose. Love you too!" I told her back and we hung up.

I checked the clock to see it's 3:40 p.m. I sat down and started watching T.V. again when my iPhone 5 started vibrating in my back pocket.

The caller I.D. read 'Mom'. "Hello?" I answered. "Jasper, do you know how to take care of a child?" My mother's response to my hello. "No but I can learn." I responded.

"Jasper, are you sure your ready for this? Taking care of a child is a 24 hour job. Do you have the money to support the both of you?" My mom asked.

"I'm financially good and I have a week trial with her to see if I can handle taking care of a child. If it turns out I'm not ready, her social worker will take her back." I explained. "I hear Rose is coming down next week.

"Yeah, she is." I answered. "Do you want me to come down? I wouldn't mind." My mom asked me. "It's fine Mom, I don't want her overwhelmed." I told her.

"Okay, well if you need anything, give me and call and I will come and visit. Bye, Jasper. I love you!" My mom said and I could tell she was smiling.

"Love you too." I said and hung up.

At around 4:40 p.m., Calista came out of her room. "Hi, Calista." I said to her and she just stared at me from the outside of her doorframe.

"You can sit on the couch." I said and she nodded her head and came and sit by me on the couch. She sat as far away from me as she could on the couch but who wouldn't when you're now suddenly living with a complete stranger.

I am confused though by why she felt she needed permission to sit on the couch. I knew it would be very straight forward to ask her about it so I knew not to ask.

"I'm making you grilled cheese for dinner, would you like that?" I asked her, seeing if she would talk to me. But again, she just stared at me and I just took that as a yes.

As I was making our dinner, I kept looking over at her because she wasn't watching the T.V. She was looking down at her hands and just picking at her nails.

After ten more minutes of making our meals, I finally had them finished and set them at my small dining room table. I told Calista it was time to eat, and as she tried to get into her chair, I had to help her up since she was so short. She flinched away at my touch.

We ate in silence and once she was done eating, she just sat there in her chair and stared at her hands. I found that a little weird that she just sat there because I would have expected her to get up and go watch T.V. or go to her room.

"You can leave the table if you want." I said, cautiously. She gave me a nod in response and went to her room.

After I cleaned up the table, I went over to my computer and searched daycare centers around here. There was one about a mile and half away from where I worked so I decided that tomorrow I would drop her off there on my way to work.

My iPhone pinged from the coffee table that my feet were propped up on. I reached down to my feet and grabbed my phone.

I slide the unlock button open and saw that Emmett texted me. Emmett is Rosalie's boyfriend and also was my best friend in High School.

_Dude I heard I have a niece now ;) _-Emmett

_Hahaha, she's super shy so I have no idea if she'll even want to live with me _-Jasper

_Well obviously, dip-shit. Her mom was just murdered! _-Emmett

_I'm aware of that but she's SUPER shy. _-Jasper.

_Well I wanted to come down with Rose this weekend but she says I can't because it should just be 'girl time' with...? _-Emmett

_Calista _-Jasper

_That's really unique! But I think Rose said she's probably going to come back to visit you guys again next weekend, so I'll go with her then. _-Emmett

_Okay, see ya then, bro _-Jasper.

I went back to reading the reviews for Brighter Start Daycare Center. All the reviews were positive so I could breath a sigh of relief.

I turned my head to the noise of Calista opening her door and she I noticed she had changed into pajamas. She walked over to the bathroom with a tooth brush in hand. She left the door open so I noticed how she was on her the tops of feet, trying to turn the faucet on.

I got up and went into the kitchen, opened the cabinet under the sink, grabbed a stool, and brought it to her. I set the stool right in front of the sink for her.

"There you are!" I said and gave her a smile. "Thank you." She said very quietly, like a whisper. "If you have any questions or need help, never be afraid to ask." I told her. She gave me a small nod, but never meeting my eyes.

After shutting off all the lights, locking the front door, and making sure Calista made it into bed okay, I went back to my room.

I changed into some flannel pants and a white t-shirt and crawled into bed. I plugged my phone and set my phone's alarm for 8:30 to wake up.

* * *

_Beep-beep. Beep. Beep-beep. Beep._

With a groan, I rolled over shut off my alarm. With a sigh, I headed to the bathroom that was attached in my room and started the shower.

The hot water felt nice, and I started to wake up. I went as fast as I could so breakfast was made when Calista woke up.

After drying off, brushing my teeth, and getting changed into my suit and tie, I walked out to the kitchen and made Calista and I pancakes.

I set the table, got out the butter and syrup, and got out the milk and juice. I then went over to Calista's door, peeked my head in to she was still asleep.

"Hey, Calista." I said quietly as I lightly shook her arm. Her eyes fluttered opened and she looked at me and then got out of bed and headed to the kitchen with me behind her.

We both sat down at the table and started eating. Channel 38 News was on with the weather for today and it showed that it was suppose to rain and storm the rest of the week.

Calista left the table about 10 minutes after we sat down and I noticed she only ate about 1/4 of her pancake and barely drank any of her milk.

I cleaned up her's and I's plate and the table and saw that we should be leaving soon.

"Hey, Calista! We're leaving in about five minutes!" I called out to Calista.

She came out of her bathroom a couple minutes later all dressed and I got up to show her we we're leaving. I opened the door for her and she went out and then I did but after locking the door.

We made our way down the hallway to the elevator and went down to the bottom floor. Across the street was the parking garage my black Hummer H3 was in.

It was up on the third floor so we had to walk up a few flights of stairs before we got the floor we needed to be at. I found my car and got into the drivers seat and noticed that Calista couldn't even reach the door.

I got out with a chuckle and a grin on my face and opened the backseat door for her and helped her in.

"Remind me to get you a booster seat." I said as I got back into the drivers seat and started up my car.

The daycare center was about three miles away from us so that's also convenient. We walked up to the front door together and I opened the door for her.

A lady at the front desk was there to greet me.

"Hello, I'm Ariel. How can I help you?" Ariel said with a smile. "Hi, I'm Jasper Hale. I'd like to enroll her in daycare." I said and pointed at Calista.

"Oh, great!" Ariel said with a warm smile and came from out behind the desk to meet Calista.

"What's her name and age?" Ariel asked as she got down to eye level with Calista. "Her name is Calista and she's four." I told her.

"Perfect. She's gonna go back to the room with other four-year-olds. This is a trial day for her and we're going to write down notes about what we notice about how she acts around other children and her behavior. You can review those notes tonight and then you can decide if you want to enroll her here or somewhere else. Here's a list of numbers to contact us and if you could leave you're number on this sheet of paper, that'd be great." Ariel explained to me as she handed me a piece of paper. I wrote down my cell phone number and work phone.

"What time will we expect you back?" Ariel asked. "A little after four." I said. "Perfect! If anything comes up, we'll call you." Ariel said with a smile and stuck her hand out to Calista so she could hold it.

I got down to eye level with Calista. "I'm going to leave for a while but I will come back later. If you want to call me at any time through out the day, you are more then welcomed too. Have a great day." I said with a smile and left. As I was leaving, I turned around and saw Calista holding Ariel's hand as they walked down the hallway and Calista was watching me with a sad expression.

I gave her a wave and a supportive smile as I left. I really hope she likes it here because I really don't know where else to take her.

I arrived at work and made sure I was early enough to my meeting in 20 minutes.

* * *

Work went by really slow because I kept looking at the clock and checking my phone for any calls.

I checked the clock at it read 3:54 p.m. _Finally!_

"Why do you keep checking the clock? Have a date waiting for you?" My coworker, Calvin, said from his office which was to the left of my office. I could sense the smile on his face.

"Nah, I have to pick up my daughter." I said without even realizing I called Calista my daughter. It felt weird saying it, but in a good way.

"You have a daughter?!" Quinn said as he popped up from office which was on the right side of my office.

"Well she's living with me because her real mom has recently died and they can't find her dad so I was asked to adopt her." I explained.

"So you are going to adopt her?" Calvin asked. "I have no idea. I'm going to ask her in two weeks what she wants to do." I said.

"Well good luck!" Quinn said as he clasped me on the back. I thanked him and got all my stuff in my brief case, clocked out and left.

It took me about ten minutes to find my car and go pick up Calista. I made it to the daycare and when Ariel saw me, she went and got Calista.

About a minute later, Calista came out and Ariel had a piece of paper for me. "She's been wonderful!" Ariel said with a big smile.

"That's awesome to hear." I said and looked down at Calista who was looking down at her hands.

I waved goodbye to Ariel and we left. I had to help Calista into my car again and we headed home.

"So how was your first day of daycare?" I asked, looking at her with the rearview mirror.

"Good." She answered. "Did you make any friends?" I asked. "No." She responded. "Well, maybe tomorrow." I said with a supportive smile.

We made it to the parking garage and after I helped Calista out of the car, we walked back to my apartment.

The rest of the night was pretty the same as the night before, but Calista opened up to me a little more. I learned she liked the color purple and she was allergic to feathers.

I slept more peaceful that night, knowing that Calista was trusting me more. If I do end up adopting her, we have a long journey ahead of us. But, I'm not going to let this little girl down.

**So I know I haven't updated in forever. I went through a phase where I pretty much said screw it and started a bunch of new stories and ended up deleting them. Anyways, I will do my best to stick with this story because I have a good feeling about this story! Please review so I know someones appreciating this story :)**


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